Lighting systems for motorcycles are important to provide illumination of driving surfaces in dark or low visibility conditions and to improve the visibility of motorcycles to other vehicles and pedestrians. While motorcycles have typically been provided with a main headlight for illuminating the road ahead of the motorcycle, headlights are generally mounted high on the handlebars, and thus illumination of the road immediately in front of the motorcycle is degraded. To improve the illumination of the road, many motorcycle operators choose to add accessory lights on lower portions of the motorcycle to supplement the illumination provided by the main headlight.
In addition to providing improved illumination of the road, such accessory lighting may also provide benefits in terms of improved safety. While headlights may be visible to drivers of other vehicles on the road, the fact that motorcycles generally have a single headlight, or closely spaced pairs of headlights, makes it difficult for other drivers to adequately determine the distance and rate of speed of a motorcycle moving toward them. The results of a traffic safety study indicated that 75% of motorcycle accidents involve collision with other vehicles, and that the predominating cause of such accidents was the failure of other motorists to detect and recognize approaching motorcycles. Accordingly, the frequency of accidents involving motorcycles may be decreased when the motorcycles are provided with additional lights which are lower than the headlight and spaced on opposite sides of the motorcycle to provide additional visual references for determining the distance and rate of speed of an approaching motorcycle.
Conventionally available accessory lights for motorcycles have typically been mounted to the forks or fork sliders of a motorcycle front suspension, or to engine guards positioned at the sides of a motorcycle. Mounting of these prior accessory lights has generally been accomplished by clamping the light to a tubular portion of these structural components. For example, one such conventional accessory light comprises a light bar that is designed to be mounted to an upper portion of the forks, commonly referred to as the “triple tree.” This prior accessory light is mounted high on the motorcycle and near the main headlight, thus the accessory lights tend to appear as a single light, together with the headlight, when viewed from a distance. These high-mounted lights also create a glare for oncoming drivers and provide marginal illumination of the road surface.
When the accessory lights are clamped to the forks or fork sliders, care must be taken to position the light in a location where adequate clearance is provided as the fork slider slides along the forks, so as not to damage the light or other components of the motorcycle. If a particular motorcycle is not provided with engine guards, then mounting of an accessory light to an engine guard is not an option. In other situations, motorcycle operators may elect not to outfit their motorcycles with accessory lights due to the inconvenience of having to modify the motorcycle.
Accordingly, there is a need for an alternative accessory riding light for motorcycles that can be easily mounted to existing structure of the motorcycle and which does not require extensive modification of the motorcycle.